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Sorry for your loss, @makikiboy. I was the executor of my mother's estate. She didn't much of an estate but I took my duties seriously --as legal representative, I had to make sure her wishes were carried out, no matter what my feelings were as a daughter. I agree with the others regarding looking into a lawyer and accountant, especially given some less salubrious relatives. These costs should be billed to the estate, but I imagine that every state has something different to add regarding the fine details. Best of luck to you.

TOD is transfer on death. In my case, I knew my mother's time was short and we managed to unearth this fact about beneficiaries during our research and set up TOD beneficiaries. (For others reading this with loved ones, I set it up with DMV for her car (https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/naming-tod-beneficiary.html). After her death, it took me 20 minutes at the DMV desk to transfer the car and then I didn't have to deal with any tax implications.) Not all states do this, but if it helps any of you reading this, great.

Sorry, also, for your loss. I'm a retired CPA, not an attorney, nor do I play one in my retirement! You need to see an attorney ASAP. Start with the trust preparer, and go from there. Lots of unanswered questions before any of us lay amateurs can give an accurate answer. How large is her estate? How many beneficiaries are there? Tax situations on distributions of retirement accounts can be good or really, really, bad. (You might benefit from a partial distribution in 2018 and another next year.) I've seen the easiest and simplest estates fall into an all out war, over next to nothing. The legal and professional fees you pay now will be among the wisest money you've ever spent.

As an executor you have legal responsibilities and "forgetting" to do those responsibilities can land you in big legal trouble including going to jail for fraud.
My mom had a trust, but I still had to go thru probate for a few small things that were outside of the trust. I had the trust lawyer do it and it wasn't very expensive. Don't allow them to charge based on a percentage of assets and be the most efficient as possible when dealing with the attorney as they charge usually by the 1/4 hour.

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I did contact the trust attorney, unfortunately he takes a percentage of assets before he will give any advice or assistance. The trust does say that it was created to avoid probate.

I have a paralegal friend who looked through the will and trust and said that I didn't need to go through probate. Basically the trust and will said that the assets will be split between myself and my brother, with the contingency that $25k will go to the sumbag if there are still cash assets after the trust is executed. My brother has no problem with us splitting the assets so we will try to avoid probate.

I opened the bank account for my mother and some of my money in the account is mine. The paralegal and I content that since it was a joint account it passes to me upon her death. that is what I want to query a trust attorney but unfortunately the trust attorney wants a percentage of assets before they assist. I don't have a record of the amount I put into the account so hard to prove anything.

As for the scumbag, luckily my mom moved from Maui to Honolulu to live in a care home (assisted living facility). She had to pay a big lump sum to get into the care home (almost $200k, which the care home got and ) so she didn't have a lot of cash available after that. Scumbag still contacted her and begged her for money but she finally caught on and realized what he was and told him no more. Unfortunately she didn't update her trust so he was still part of the trust but she said she didn't want to give him any more money. Too bad I didn't push amending the trust at the time but she kept giving excuses. He has been out of the picture for the last 5 years so isn't in an contact with her or the family.

Luckily she got rid of most of her stuff on Maui (getting fraction of pennies on the dollar for them) so she didn't have a lot of stuff to get rid of. For her Honolulu stuff I just gathered what I thought could be used and left the rest to the care home, I can use them for charitable contributions as she had an adjustable bed, leather couch and other stuff and I didn't want to bother trying to sell them myself or moving them out of the care home.

thanks for your words of condolences but my mom wasn't a nice person. When my dad died in 2001 I inherited a condo from him.. Mom was mad, she wanted everything and expressed her displeasure that I got something from dad's will/trust. Unfortunately the condo also had their mortgage so I asked her if dad's estate could pay the mortgage ($65k) off. Her attorneys sent me a certified letter saying that I was responsible for the condo and the mortgage attached to the condo and not to contact her for financial assistance. She wasn't poor, she got over $200k from his life insurance, over $400k from his IRA, a bunch of condos and a number of investments so she had a lot of money but she wanted the kids to grovel or else she wouldn't give us anything. I worked 2 jobs for a couple of years and luckily the real estate market went up enough that I could sell the condo and pay off the mortgage. After capital gains taxes I ended up with about $5000 from the condo.

Anyway, I just hope that we have an attorney that can assist me with the joint bank account.

If the trust atty immediately wants a percentage, forget him and try someone else. Lots of them will work for an hourly fee, and let them know just what advice you need, not that you need them to do all the estate liquidation. Once again, please don't rely on those of us on VMB, (though we have some great people) to give accurate advice in this complicated situation. You and your brother should both be involved in this, since he is also a beneficiary, even if you are the executor.

Chances are that so called ‘scumbag’ relative has already contacted his attorney to get a share even if he doesn’t know specific details. Hiring an attorney now will save you a lot of grief later. The will and trust needs to be executed to the letter of the law, regardless of who handles it.

Another thought Malkikboy, what if you are unable to find your cousin, run some adds in newspaper to fulfill you obligation, hold the money and wait to see if he responds. Best run that thought by a Lawler first though. I know I have not explained it very well, it is just a thought, if you are able to contact him easily then it is best to just pay him out.

Chances are that so called ‘scumbag’ relative has already contacted his attorney to get a share even if he doesn’t know specific details. Hiring an attorney now will save you a lot of grief later. The will and trust needs to be executed to the letter of the law, regardless of who handles it.

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We haven't sent in the obit yet, we will do it after the services in a couple of weeks. We don't associate with that side of the family and the relatives on that side were the ones who told us about the scam he was doing to my mom so nobody told him yet. As for him getting an attorney, not likely as he is unemployed and living in a halfway house. Apparently he spent all the $$ given to him. His brothers and sisters kicked him out of the family house, he was living there for free after their parents passed so the brothers and sisters sold the house and kicked him out so without a job his money quickly ran out. . I honestly don't know how he befriended my mom since we never associate with that side of the family (per my mom decades ago, she didn't want to have anything to do with my dad's side of the family).

If the trust atty immediately wants a percentage, forget him and try someone else. Lots of them will work for an hourly fee, and let them know just what advice you need, not that you need them to do all the estate liquidation. Once again, please don't rely on those of us on VMB, (though we have some great people) to give accurate advice in this complicated situation. You and your brother should both be involved in this, since he is also a beneficiary, even if you are the executor.

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Yes, that was why I tried the query on VMB, after contacting the attorney and getting their percentage thing I hoped that there was an attorney here to assist. I keep in close contact with my brother so he is aware about everything. In fact he was the one recommending we don't pay the deadbeat relative.

Anyway, thanks for all your suggestions. I will have to find a trust attorney or someone to assist with liquidating the trust. Too bad, I could have sworn that we had attorney's on the site, maybe one will give their recommendation when he/she reads it in the future.

Maybe you can contact the attorney who wrote the trust and instead of a percentage, negotiate an hourly rate or a retainer. Never hurts to ask.

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Unfortunately I did contact the attorney. He said that they will only help if they get a percentage.

I did a google search on joint accounts and this is what they say:

Joint accounts typically do not contribute to the decedent's probate estate, which means that the terms of the account supersede the decedent's will. He generally cannot leave that money to anyone else.

Thanks for all you replies. I was hoping that there was an attorney on VMB to answer some of my questions.

I did contact the trust attorney, unfortunately he takes a percentage of assets before he will give any advice or assistance. ...

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ALARM ALARM

Percent of assets is a greedy good for nothing piece of crap.

If the estate was $200 and he got 20% it would be only $40. No attorney works for that little.

If the estate is $500,000 and he got 20% he would get $100,000.

No way any sane person can make sense of either of those. (I made of the percent part)

As a famous person once said :"and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?"